Vukolov, Semen Petromch

Born Aug. 23 (Sept. 4), 1863, in the stanitsa (Cossack village) of Starocherkasskaia, on the Don: died Oct. 9, 1940, in Leningrad. Soviet chemist; specialist in explosives and gunpowders.

In 1887, Vukolov graduated from the University of St. Petersburg and began working there in the laboratory of D. I. Mendeleev in 1889. Vukolov assisted Mendeleev, who was the director of the Scientific-Technical Laboratory of Naval Science, from its founding in 1891. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, Vukolov directed the development of technology for producing and inspecting trinitrotoluene (trotyl); later he did the same for tetryl. From 1919 to 1927 he worked in the State Institute of Applied Chemistry, and from 1926 he was a professor at the Naval Academy and at Leningrad University. From 1932 he again worked at the Scientific-Technical Laboratory of Naval Science and also at the Leningrad Technological Institute.